Louis Massaro ran multiple companies simultaneously until he nearly went bankrupt without realizing it. His CPA told him to strip everything back and focus on direct revenue. He rebuilt by narrowing priorities and learning to survive downturns, not just ride booms.
I felt like I need to switch gears and become a moving CEO, right? And then let me. Let me dress the part and let me be the part. It was good, right? Made me feel like a CEO. I was running a bunch of companies. I felt like, you know, professional. All of a sudden, this office is running out of money. That office is running out of money. I'm taking money from here to take care of that, to pay that, to pay that. Before long, facing bankruptcy, didn't know my numbers. And I went to my CPA and I said, you've got to help me here. I need to. I don't even know where to look. Steve said to me, he said, you need to lose the shirt and the slacks. Go back to the T shirts and jeans and go make some fucking money and make this thing work. So what did I do? I had no choice. I had to get the tunnel vision. I had to get focused. I had to dig and crawl my way out of this. I built a business to survive in good times. We were making so much money because our sales were great that I didn't even notice all the inefficiencies. But it wasn't built to withstand the storm.
